Orioles Cool Off Yankees, 6-2

NEW YORK — Before the game, Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said he probably wouldn’t use setup man Dellin Betances or closer Andrew Miller after both pitched the previous two days.

Chase Whitley wasn’t effective enough to make any of that matter.

Chris Davis hit one of Baltimore’s three early home runs, Wei-Yin Chen won for the first time this season and the Orioles snapped a four-game slide May 9 with a 6-2 victory over New York.

Jimmy Paredes had three hits, including a solo homer, and slumping Alejandro De Aza added a two-run drive off Whitley to give the Orioles their first win this week in New York.

Baltimore lost a pair of interleague games to the Mets at Citi Field before dropping the first two in a four-game series at Yankee Stadium.

“The first one that Paredes hit, hopefully that fan’s hand is OK because he hit that one pretty well,” Whitley said. “But the one De Aza hit, he hit a pretty good pitch.”

Delmon Young knocked in two runs to build up the cushion for Chen (1-1), who scattered five hits over seven innings. He struck out a season-high seven and walked one, yielding only John Ryan Murphy’s sacrifice fly.

The 29-year-old lefty from Taiwan was in control the whole way, throwing 76 strikes in 106 pitches. Using a sneaky fastball above the hands of several hitters, he struck out the side in the third and whiffed his final three batters of the day.

“He was executing his pitches,” Chase Headley said. “I thought he did a good job of locating his fastball. It didn’t feel like he threw a ball in the middle of the plate. When they got out to that lead, he did a good job of making us string hits together.”

A 16-game winner last year, Chen entered with a 2.83 ERA, the lowest among qualifying starters without a victory. It was his first win since Sept. 15 against Toronto.

Zach Britton got two outs for his sixth save — a brief replay review upheld an out call on a close play at first base that ended the game.

New York lost for just the sixth time in its last 22.

Hit hard by Baltimore last year as well, Whitley (1-1) was tagged for all three homers in 5 2-3 shaky innings. He gave up five runs, six hits and two walks.

A rotation replacement for injured Masahiro Tanaka, the right-hander allowed only one run over 12 innings in his previous two major league starts this season.

“When he made a mistake, they made him pay,” Girardi said. “He was just a little bit off today.”

Paredes homered in the third and Davis went deep in the fourth, both on the first pitch. Whitley then plunked Steve Pearce with a wayward breaking ball, and one out later De Aza drove a 2-2 delivery into the stands for a 4-0 lead.

All three home runs cleared the short porch in right field.

Manny Machado hit a leadoff double in the fifth and scored on a single by Young, who added an RBI double in the seventh after Paredes tripled.

Paredes, a former Yankees farmhand, has 25 hits this season, 12 for extra bases.

“He wants to stay in this lineup and he’s doing what it takes,” Orioles Manager Buck Showalter said. “He doesn’t want to go back to all the things he’s been through with waiver wires and what have you. He wants to make sure he’s found a home.”

New York scored an unearned run off Tommy Hunter in the eighth on an RBI single by Carlos Beltran.